Boy Ferguson you are a piece of cake. First you are trying to convince the general public you have a blank license plate because you work narcotic cases; no you don’t! You would not know how to make a narcotic deal if it walked up to you. None of your reasoning makes sense. Let’s take your truck. On one hand you say you use it for working in narcotics (that is the way I read your reasoning for having a pickup truck with illegal tinted windows and blank tags) and you don’t want the bad guys to find out who you are. Well what do you do with that face you have that only a mother would love? How do you hide it from the bad guys? On the other hand, if the truck is so recognizable, as you say because of Sheriff Andy Lee ratting you off for the illegal use of the truck, then why would you want to use it as a narcotic unit? Why do you want to hide from the public anyway? You are the Sheriff. You have to run for office every two years. Every two years your face is out in the public where the bad guys live and function, how do you think an unmarked truck with a blank tag is going to help hide you? Speaking of that nice fancy truck, did you bid it out before you bought it?

I saw the video of the Bentonville officer backing away to his unit with his partner doing the same thing. It looked like Barney Fife all over again! I suspect there is a lot more to this traffic stop than meets the eye. It is doubtful that any officer in Benton County could fail to recognize the Ferguson pickup. Police officers do not stop other police officers as a general rule unless there is a flagrant violation. Officer Woodhams is certainly not stupid enough to stop his boss and it is doubtful that he would have stopped one of his fellow officers. There are many vehicles in Benton and Washington counties driving around with no tags at all. Why aren't they stopped? The rest of us have to buy tags. I have witnessed our visiting neighbors from the south switch tags from one car to another and leave for work. There is a high probability that the person switching tags is not a U S. citizen. Someone has started a war between the Sheriff's office and the Bentonville P.D. and nothing good is going to come from it. Officers in each department will take sides and the feud will go on for years. BARNEY FIFE IS ALIVE AND WELL!!!!!!

Really? He thinks officers should recognize his black 4 door Chevy???? I guess it's the only one in the tri state area? How ridiculous. It's not his first time to use his position or "years of seasoning as an officer" as an excuse to not be pulled over. The officer was doing his J O B

If that was me I would've went to jail. There's a reason why the jail is so overcrowded and it's not b/c they are full of violent felons. I went to jail for 8 days b/c I didn't pay a no insurance ticket several years prior(honest mistake on my part). I couldn't afford to bond out and would've been there another month or so(until my court date) if someone wouldn't have took pity on me. I lost my job and my last check was crap and went almost a year before I could find another one,which was very hard on me and my child. Most other places cite non-violent,non drug related,misdemeanors for someone or they go before the judge the next day,plea,and get a court date and go home. He should stop wasting tax dollars and taking advantage of his position so he can bully people and be a hypocrite.

Some of you need to grow up. I've read some stupid comments. First of all what ticket was he trying to use his influence to get out of? So what, the state will give law enforcement agencies as many of these types of plates as needed. They don't necessarily need to be used for narcotics. If the ticket had been written, the judge would have immediately dismissed it, therefore a waste of time and resources. I've read of one other stop back in 2009. The officer handed him his license and he drove away. Duh! Solunds like the traffic stop was finished or else he would not have returned his license. I agree with other comments, the sheriff was not outrageous or rude. He was simply trying to tell the office who he was. Once the officer made that determination, the traffic stop should have been over. Instead the sheriff was kept for another 10 minutes, For what?

Fergie will mess up again.. I only I hope it's a legit DWI the next time.. Be great to have him in his own jail. Good experience for him and his tarnish badge.Will have to be Bentonville,, Rogers won't do it.

NWAobserverIts plain to see why you observe, because your suggestions for proper police procedure is asinine!

The Sheriff was probably armed with a hand gun, If he wasn't, he should have been arrested for being derelict in his duties.

This whole thing was blown out of sorts, by both sides! Ive worked in law enforcement 25 years. Sheriff Ferguson didn't have to be so rude, but Cpl Woodham should have let him go as soon as he recognized him as the Sheriff. State, County and Municipal vehicles do not fall under the same laws as private citizens. Why? because those vehicles are paid for by taxpayers. Why does private citizens register their vehicles? TAXES!!! It would be very silly if we taxed vehicles paid for by the taxpayers to begin with. That being said, as soon as Cpl Woodham recognized Sheriff Ferguson, he should have terminated the traffic stop. No violation had occurred! It should have been obvious to Cpl Woodham that Sheriff Ferguson was in a county owned vehicle.

Everyone is so anit government, they cant wait to jump on that band wagon. Well if there wasn't some sort of government, there would be anarchy. If that was the case NWAobserver, I would sure as hell want someone like Keith Ferguson on my side. Someone who would not be intimidated by a bunch of thug bikers. Wade out in the middle of them like John Wayne. Let them know the right side will not be intimidated by the likes of their gang! That my friend is always what will stand in the end!

Your so called professionals have got this country is such great shape now. Crime is higher than it has ever been. Why? The criminals know there is nothing to fear. They get air conditioned, 3 meals a day, medical treatment, law libraries, work out facilities, and cable tv. What they use to get was their azz whipped and worked from daylight till dark. Something they remembered as a place they did not want to return. Now its a place where they commit a crime so they can go right back and receive free medical care that is paid by the taxpayers.

I guess when everyone gets tired of the job your professionals are doing, and want to restore law in the land again, I hope there are some dinosaurs left that can get the job done!

Sorry cgraddy68, your post is not standing up. Ferguson is anything but professional. Never has been! This paper has been too good of a friend of ferguson in the years past but it looks like that is over with. Ferguson can no longer hide behind the skirt of a newspaper friend when he does one of his usual out of color stunts. I have said this before; if ferguson had been professional we would not be posting in the blog section about this traffic stop. I find it interesting how you find fault with the Bentonville Police Officer for doing his job. He did not go looking for a rude Sheriff; the Sheriff came to him. As he has done with many officers before! Ferguson has accomplice one thing in his forty two years of law enforcement, as he likes to remind everyone, tarnished the badge.

Cannot wait to see what the next few months bring. I do know this; this will not be the last of ferguson. He will once again make the front page either before he leaves or after. But let’s take a look how your badge tarnishing sheriff will be remembered when he leaves this county from just his actions of the last six weeks.

• The night of the election when his buddy jones did not win the election ferguson made a statement that the voters of this county were wrong for failing to support the right candidate

• Ferguson refuses to extend an open invitation to the sheriff-elect to visit and get to know the operations of the Sheriff’s Office before he is sworn in. Remember ferguson was given unfettered access to the Sheriff’s Office after he won the primary six months before he was sworn in. He was also given a car to drive, a master key to the Sheriff’s Office and a commission by the outgoing Sheriff.

• Another of many traffic stops of the sheriff with confutation started by old tarnish badge ferguson.

Looks like a pissing contest to me. By the way, to those few Ferguson bashers - didn't your Momma ever teach you that the more crap you stir the greater chance you have of getting some of it on you? Not sure what the newspaper policy is for this language, but if I am hereby banned, I think it would be a blessing. The editorials and opinions regarding the sheriff are rubbish, and you are using your position at the newspaper to fan whatever smoldering fire there might me. I thought the you were better than that. My mistake.

cgraddy68- there was an additional violation with the sheriff not having a month tab on the tags. You are beyond wrong about the tags issue because the sheriff had regular, permanent style tags that require tabs. moron.